Marki Ashvilli

Marki Ashvilli (1960-2008) was a Georgian business oligarch and Georgian Mafia kingpin. Ashvilli was well known for owning the New York Rangers hockey team during the early 2000s, and he was killed in the 2008 MeTV building shootout on the orders of rival crime boss Ray Bulgarin.

Biography
Marki Ashvili was born in the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1960 to a family of ethnic Georgians, and he became involved with the Georgian Mafia in the USSR. Ashvili had far-reaching influence, as he led the powerful Ashvilli crime family in both the USSR and the West. After the downfall of the USSR in 1991, Ashvilli became an oligarch in Russia, becoming a billionaire with organized crime links. Ashvilli purchased the New York Rangers hockey team in the United States, investing in American sports to become even richer. Ashvilli moved to New York City, and he made the MeTV building his office. Ashvilli was involved with numerous crimes in America, and he had connections in the government and police force, while he also got away with having sex with an underage Hispanic prostitute. Ashvilli repeatedly denied having links to organized crime, and he was a controversial figure.

Downfall
In 2008, Russian Mafia boss Ray Bulgarin attempted to purchase the Rangers from Ashvilli, but Ashvilli refused to sell his prized team, and he opened a criminal investigation into Bulgarin with the help of some corrupt officials. Ashvilli purchased his own team of corrupt FBI agents and SWAT troopers for protection against Bulgarin, and he had them track Bulgarin's black Ford SUV. Bulgarin decided to lure them into an ambush, sending Luis Fernando Lopez to drive the SUV into a Yorkville, Manhattan parking garage; Bulgarin, Lopez, and Timur Ovchinnikov waited in the garage as the corrupt federal agents moved into the garage. In the ensuing 2008 Yorkville parking garage shootout, the SWAT and FBI agents were massacred after an intense shootout, and Ashvilli lost his protection. When Ashvilli again refused to sell the team to Bulgarin, Bulgarin sent Lopez to kill Ashvilli at his office in the MeTV building. Lopez parachuted onto the roof and proceeded to engage in a shootout with Ashvilli's security team. Ashvilli was cornered in his office, and he demanded to know who Lopez was; he asked him if the Russian government had sent him, or if he was sent by the underage prostitute. Lopez shot him in the chest with his M4 carbine, causing Ashvilli to fall through the office window to his death on a rooftop below.